Your Right to Know

The campaign supporting the Columbus City Schools property-tax levy spent $2.27 million through
Oct. 16, mostly from large corporate and union donations, according to the report it filed with the
Franklin County Board of Elections yesterday.

That’s more than five times what the district’s last levy campaign had raised by this point in
2008.

“It’s more than we’ve spent in the past (on district levy campaigns), but I think these changes
are more than we’ve ever proposed in the past,” said Gene Pierce, the spokesman for Reimagine
Columbus Education, the levy campaign committee.

“I think it’s a sign that the business community knows how important these changes to the school
system are,” Pierce said. “This is a critical election, and we don’t want to delay the changes. It
shows the broad-based commitment of the community.”

But levy opponent Jon Beard said the money spent shows that “Columbus has inherently unfair
elections” that favor powerful special interests.

“It’s a ridiculous amount of money,” said Beard, whose group No Cheaters No Charters Columbus
raised $1,976 and was outspent by about 1,150-to-1 by the pro-levy campaign. “It’s a ton of money
to convince people that a series of bad ideas is really a good idea. This seems to me like it’s
just buying an election.”

The pro-levy campaign committee spent almost all of its bankroll: It had just over $37,000 on
hand, yesterday’s report said. There will definitely be more contributions before Election Day,
Pierce said. The next finance report is due Dec. 13, according to the Board of Elections.

“I’m sure there are other people who will want to contribute as we get closer,” Pierce said.

Already contributing were large corporations and unions. American Electric Power and Nationwide
Insurance led the giving with $275,000 each, accounting for nearly a quarter of the money the
campaign had to spend on ads featuring Mayor Michael B. Coleman, Ohio State football coach Urban
Meyer and former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

Two companies each gave $250,000 — Limited Brands and Wolfe Enterprises, a wholly owned
subsidiary of The Dispatch Printing Company, which publishes
The Dispatch.

Nearly all of the pro-levy money came from 52 corporate and union donations — $2.21 million of
the $2.24 million the committee reported raising through Oct. 16. The rest came from 92 individual
donations that ranged from $5 to $10,000. The largest individual donation came from David Meuse,
the president of Stonehenge Partners, which provides investment counsel.

Issue 50 on the Nov. 5 ballot seeks a 9.01-mill levy that would cost district homeowners $315
per $100,000 of home value, a 24 percent increase over the school tax that a property owner
currently pays. It would allocate 1 mill, or about $8.5 million, to high-performing charter schools
and another mill to expanding pre-kindergarten education. The largest portion, 3.1 mills, would go
toward the district’s operating budget, which includes teacher pay. It would also fund new
computers and finance bonds for new and renovated buildings.

The campaign spent about $1.3 million on media buys made through Triumph Communications and
almost $400,000 in printing production. The rest was spent on canvassing, media production,
consulting, rent, surveys and focus groups, and other expenses.